Thursday, December 6, 2007 - 12:49 PM EST

Washington Business Journal - by Erin Killian Staff Reporter

A couple who met seven months ago have opened a rotisserie chicken place in the District on U Street. They are billing it as organic, healthy and environmentally friendly -- a departure from such national chains as Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Lukas Umana and Victoria Garcia, both Department of Defense employees who have been dating for about seven months, opened Chix D.C. at 2019 11th St. NW where there used to be Inca Chicken.

The restaurant sells three types of rotisserie chicken and wraps such as the black bean hummus and veggie wrap. The chicken is "100 percent natural, free-range and antibiotic- and hormone-free," Umana said.

"We're going to have a grand opening in the spring," he said. "We want to wait until the weather is nice."

The couple opened the restaurant the week before Thanksgiving, hoping that the word would get out about their spot near the U Street/Cardozo Metro station before the official grand opening.

Umana and Garcia used a Small Business Administration loan from Adams National Bank to refurbish the 1,800-square-foot space on two floors in an old townhouse. They spent $300,000 to buy the lease and the kitchen equipment, paint the restaurant and outfit it with wireless Internet service. There are 25 seats upstairs. People can buy their food from a counter.

Umana is buying eco-friendly products. He said he gets his packaging from Eco-Products, based in Boulder, Colo. The plastic-looking products, made out of corn starch, are biodegradable.

"We're concerned about the environment," Umana said. "Our slogan is eat responsibly."

His mother, who is a diabetic, came to visit late last month and ate at Chix for 10 days, Umana said. That time was the "lowest her sugar levels have been since she found out she was a diabetic," he said. "That was 15 years ago."

Umana says 50 percent of the menu is organic, including the organic basmati brown rice, black beans and a salad of organic chick peas, green peppers, onions and parsley.

His family has owned a restaurant in Bogota, Colombia, for more than 40 years, although Umana grew up in Miami. He said he is using one if his family's recipes -- a garnish of white vinegar, water, scallions and onions -- for the lentil soup at Chix.

Umana and Garcia also have received advice from her father, a chef opening a restaurant in Pensacola, Fla., in the next month. He came to D.C. to train the managers and draft the menu for the couple.

They need help with the logistics because they both have day jobs.

"We don't like people to know we work for the Department of Defense," Umana said. "With the negative connotation the government has with the war, we try to keep it out of our lives. People ask us how we can do both jobs. We both love food. We have grown up around it."

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